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Topic: Low Light Mixes (Read 66055 times)

A little change of pace for Low Light Mixes with "Footsteps". I discovered The Maple Mountain Sunburst Triolian Orchestra recently & just had to find a home for it in a mix. So this mix then is all beats, funky beats, psychedelic beats, jazzy beats, retro beats, etc.

I have always loved a little known Genesis tune called "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats". The last song on the end of side three(vinyl), it's a 3 minute instrumental that is more ambient than old prog rock.

I remember a thread at the Hypnos forum, a long time ago, that was a list of the best ambient tracks by non-ambient artists. I'm sure the thread was lost in the great Hypnos forum purge a few years ago, but I think I added artists like Radiohead, Daryl Hall, Peter Gabriel, etc. I think "Silent Sorrow" may be the best ambient track by a non-ambient artist.

Anyway, I've always wanted to use it in a mix so here it is. I used the track as the title for this mix but the music doesn't necessarily take on the sorrowful feel that the title suggests.

I've posted a couple new mixes that I think the Hypnos community might like. And they both feature some Hypnos artists.

First up is a mix called "Far from Home". It's a deep space mix, hopefully the music will generate a feeling of weightlessness, of drifting in the vast expanse of space, without being too dark or dissonant. The mix features Hypnos artists Mike Griffin, A Produce & Austere.

Also just posted is a mix of generally pleasant, "pretty" ambient music, called "Positively Ambient". I had a request from a listener to put together something "optimistic" or "euphoric" in tone. Not sure if this exactly fits that description, but it's a nice, soothing hour of music with Hypnos alums, James Johnson & Jeff Pearce making a cameo.

The idea for this mix started with my love for the sound of Djivan Gasparyan's music. He plays the duduk, a double reed instrument related to the oboe. It's got a great melancholy, other-worldy feel to it. The rest of the music is a collection of ethnic recordings, shortwave broadcasts, field recordings & westernized versions of ethnic music.

I've been cranking out mixes at the rate of about one a week(i need a new hobby). Here are the three most recent mixes...

Television SkySome cool electronica style music discovered at the end of 2010 with artists like aKido, Lights Out in Asia, Tropics, Morgan Packard, Jon Hopkins & more.[stream][download]

Quintessential JazzI came across an interesting list here... Quintessential Jazz Songs. It's a listener compiled list of the 100 best jazz tunes. It's a fun read. I took some of the tracks to make my first all jazz mix.[download]

I am generally not a big fan of dark ambient, so I knew making a Halloween mix was going to be interesting.

As I was looking through my music I came across "The Twin Peaks Archive" by David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti. I thought, now there is some dark-ish music that would be cool to use in a Halloween mix.

Three Twins Peaks tunes made it into the final mix, "Shadowland", & helped establish a sort of film noir feel. There are definite dissonant moments but hopefully the mix is more creepy & shadowy rather than outright scary & annoying.

Wow, I haven't posted new mixes to this thread in quite some time. So I'll just list a bunch here with quick descriptions & links(in reverse chronological order).

Sunday Morning Music - Inspired by a new Wilco tune called "One Sunday Morning." Works well with sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee & reading the paper.Mixcloud stream or direct download

The Mellow Side of Prog - I know there some folks my age here on the forum so perhaps they'll enjoy this one as much as I did. Pretty self-explanatory - mostly 70's prog rock, but mellow tunes.Mixcloud stream or direct download

I haven't posted updates in a while but I thought my latest mix was odd enough to warrant a mention here.

The mix is called "s t r e t c h e d beyond recognition". All the music has been stretched or slowed down so much that the tunes are unrecognizable from the originals.

I used a great little program called Paul Stretch which you can find here... http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/It take music and stretches or slows it down dramatically but still keeps it very musical. I've used the program a few times for mixes in the past but never for creating an entire mix.

All the tracks are slowed by at least 10x to 15x. The slowed down result is perfect for meditation, sleeping or daydreaming. It's kind of amazing to me how it was possible to create something entirely new from the source material. Steve Reich's Six Marimbas seemed to work well because it's so repetitive that you still got a sense of movement even slowed way down.

Yikes! I haven't posted about any new mixes in this thread for a long time. I've uploaded a bunch of mixes since the last post in this thread & they are all available at Low Light Mixes.

This is the latest mix, "Sci Fi Adventures Vol. 1 - All These Worlds." The whole mix is about a science fiction feel, whether it's music used in sci-fi or just tunes that sound like they should be in a sci-fi film.